What are the common phrases, words, abbreviations that are used on Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, Meta Stack Overflow, and the other Stack Exchange sites?

This is meant to be a very quick overview, not an in-depth tutorial. When considering whether a term ought to be included, please use this test:

New user comes in and posts on day 1. What terminology or jargon are they likely to run into (comments, support, system messages, etc.) that cannot be understood from the context without prior experience with the site (that is, clear only if known). For example: "This is a dupe. Flag a diamond mod to close or migrate to SU." Huh? Can these instruction be made clear from the glossary? Is it clear for those for whom English is a second language?

Please:

Edit the existing answer

Insert relevant links to more detailed information on the term/phrase/abbreviation

Add only factual information

Keep it very, very brief, terse, and to the point

Delete your own comments once they become irrelevant (integrated into the glossary)

Recurring discussion:

While the experiment to keep meta-discussion in the comments is going well (that is, deleting them once consensus is reached) it is clear that some discussions will be recurring, and we'll have to keep a record around so people new to the glossary can understand the consensus already reached.

Add a new answer if you believe a new issue is likely to come up repeatedly. For instance, discussion about what terms to include, whether the glossary should be broken up to make linking easier, or formatting issues might be best discussed in new answer/comment posts.

1 Answer
1

2k User

See: Editor

3k User

See: Closer

10ker, 10k User

Refers to users who have surpassed 10,000 reputation which gives them access to moderation tools. While 10k users have access to moderator reports and notifications, generally only system-appointed moderators (♦ Diamond Moderators) can perform many moderator-level functions. These 10k users are still sometimes called "moderators".

Ban, Suspension

Being temporarily blocked from using a site on the network. There are also question bans and answer bans, which prevent you from doing those activities only (on a specific site), and chat bans (which affect all chat rooms).

See: Penalty box, Post Ban

Bounty

An amount of reputation which can be added to a question as a bonus and is awarded manually by the bounty offerer. If the bounty is not awarded within 7 days + 24 hours, half the bounty amount will be awarded to the highest voted question that has 1+ votes. It pushes the post to the featured tabsitename.stackexhange.com/?tab=featured for 7 days and visually distinguish it from other posts. Possible bounty amounts are 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450 and 500.

Close, Closed, CV

A question where no new answers are accepted. Community members with more than 3,000 reputation can vote to close a question if, for a variety or reasons, it doesn't fit the site's requirements. Five close votes closes a question. Users may only vote once to close each question.
See: Reopen

Closer

Community member with 3,000 or more reputation. Has the ability to vote to close questions based on criteria set forth in the FAQ.

Comments

Comments can be added to a question or answer to communicate information that is not necessarily appropriate for the question or answer itself (asking for clarification, for example).

Community Wiki, Wiki, CW

A question or answer that can be edited by any community members having 100 reputation or more. Questions and answers marked CW prevent users from receiving any reputation from upvotes or losing reputation from downvotes. The community user "owns" this rep.

Creative Commons Data Dump

A database export containing the cc-wiki-licensed data from each of the sites. The database contains the posts, comments, votes, badges, and user data (“sanitized” to protect privacy by removing all personally identifiable information). Blog: Stack Overflow Creative Commons Data Dump

Draft

Dupe, Duplicate

A question which has been asked before. Duplicates are discouraged - ideally all the best answers for a given issue or problem can be found in one question. Community members with more than 3,000 reputation can vote to close duplicate questions.

Editor

Community member with 2,000 or more reputation. Has the ability to edit any unlocked post on the site, even if they are not community wiki.

Edit War

This is where two or more users continually edit, or rollback a post to undo each other's actions. This is one of the reasons for a moderator to lock a post.

FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions

While the "faq" generally refers to the specific "faq document" linked at the top of each site, "faq" can also refer to any meta post linked with the moderator tag faq. The Official FAQ is a community-moderated post which attempts to annotate the features and behaviors of all Stack Exchange sites in one central location.

Favorites

A list of questions that you have bookmarked by clicking the star icon underneath the voting controls for each question.

Favorite Tags

Setting a tag as favorite causes all questions with these tags to be highlighted a different color in your questions lists.

Formerly called Interesting tag

Featured

See Bounty

Flags

Posts with serious problems can be flagged for moderator attention, being offensive, or containing spam. Any post receiving six offensive or spam flags within a two-day period is automatically deleted.

You generally only flag for moderator attention to ask moderators to do something that you don't have the ability to do (e.g. Making the post Community Wiki).

Flair

Refers to a small banner associated with a user's account, displaying their user name, reputation, badge count, and gravatar. Generally seen next to the authorship of a post but can also be embedded in an external website as a token of your membership and participation on any of the Stack Exchange sites. The term flair is from the 1999 film Office Space, and used in the Stack Overflow podcast, episode 54, at 5 min 48 secs.

Gravatar

Gravatar (an abbreviation of globally recognized avatar) is a service for providing globally-unique avatars based on the md5 hash. You can change your image to a custom profile at the above address. By default Stack Exchange uses the identicon: a geometric pattern based on an email hash, or (if you are signed up to gravatar) your chosen image. All deleted user accounts use the mystery-man a simple, cartoon-style silhouetted outline of a person.

Hat, Hats

See: Winter Bash

Ignored Tags

Tags that you specify as ignored tags cause all questions with these tags to be filtered out of your questions list, either by deemphasizing them or (at your option) removing them.

Jon Skeet

Locked

A moderator can "lock" a post where it can no longer be edited, voted or commented upon, closed or re-opened. If a question is locked, new answers can still be added to that question (provided it has not been closed), and any of the (unlocked) answers can still be edited and voted upon. What is a “Locked” question? How do they work?

Markdown

Merge

Although duplicate questions are generally closed, sometimes a moderator will merge the answers from the duplicate question into the original question, and delete the duplicate. The original question will now contain both the original answers, and the new answers from the duplicate.

Meta

Refers to any posts that discuss the operation or functionality of the site(s). The term "meta" also refers to the subsite, meta.sitename.stackexchange.com, which every sites has to handle technical support, feature requests, and discussions about each Stack Exchange site. Meta Stack Exchange (Meta.SE, MSE) is for questions that apply to the whole network. Originally, there was no Meta.SE - questions about the network were asked on Meta Stack Overflow.

Meta SE

See: Meta Stack Exchange

Meta Stack Exchange

The Meta Stack Exchange website (this site). A place to discuss matters concerning the whole Stack Exchange network. Especially for reporting network wide bugs and request features. Originally, there was no Meta.SE, questions about the network were asked on Meta Stack Overflow.

See: Meta

Meta Stack Overflow

The Meta Stack Overflow website. A place to discuss issues common to Stack Overflow. This was also the meta for the whole network before MSE existed.

Migration

Occurs when a question is deemed more appropriate for one of the other sites in the Stack Exchange network, and five users vote to close the question as "off-topic because..." and then selected "This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network." The question (and all of its answers) are copied to the new site, and the original question is closed. There is a limited list for each site - and some sites only have their meta as a migration option.

Moderator, Mod, Diamond User

A Stack Exchange user that has been elected and has additional powers to oversee a site. They can merge questions, do mass-re-tagging, and have other fun powers. They are distinguishable by the ♦ after their names on all posts / comments / chat messages and on their profile. SE employees also have the ♦ and moderator powers across all sites.

MSE

See: Meta Stack Exchange

MSO

See: Meta Stack Overflow

NARQ

See: Not a real Question

NC

See: Not Constructive

Not a real Question, NARQ

One of the items in the close dialog for a question on a Stack Exchange site.

See: Close

Not Constructive

One of the items in the close dialog for a question on a Stack Exchange site.

See: Close

Off-topic

Usually to describe a question that is deemed outside the scope of a particular Stack Exchange network site.

OP

See: Original Poster

Original Poster

The person who wrote the question. Alternatively (rarely) OP can be used to refer to the Original Post (question) itself.

OT

See: Off-topic.

OpenID

The principal login mechanism chosen for Stack Exchange; a single user name and password allows you to log in to any OpenID-enabled site.

Penalty Box

When moderators determine that a user's actions are detrimental to the site they may suspend that user for a period of time. During this time "in the penalty box" the user will not be able to post questions or answers, and their reputation will be locked at 1 until the suspension expires. Any rep they gained over the ban time is gained when the ban ends - a reputation recount happens.

Profile

Private Beta

A Stack Exchange site only available to those users who committed to the Area 51 proposal or have been invited by a member who did commit, and the SE staff (the only moderators). Has a plain graphical design that is shared by other sites. You can earn privileges with far less reputation than normal. Normally lasts 7 days, or until the site is "gelled" enough and has enough high quality content on the homepage to consider showing the public. Then moves into Public Beta.

See: Public Beta, Graduated Site, Moderators

Public Beta

A Stack Exchange site available to the whole internet. Has a plain graphical design that is shared by other sites. Privileges are earned at higher reputation levels than during "Private Beta", but lower than a graduated site. Lasts at least 90 days, though often a lot longer, until the Stack Exchange community team determines that it is likely to be self-sustaining in the long run. Then becomes a "Graduated Site". There is a bottleneck of sites awaiting graduation.

Recalc

ReCAPTCHA

Recursion

Reopen

Closed questions can be reopened if five users with 3000 rep or more vote to reopen it. New answers can then be posted to the reopened question. Each user may cast only one reopen vote per question.

See: Close

Reputation, Rep

Reputation is a rough measurement of how much the community trusts you; it is earned by convincing your peers that you know what you’re talking about. Basic use of the site, including asking questions, answering, and suggesting edits, does not require any reputation at all. But the more reputation you earn, the more privileges you gain.

The primary way to gain reputation is by posting good questions and useful answers. Votes on these posts cause you to gain (or sometimes lose) reputation. Please note that votes for posts marked “community wiki” do not generate any reputation. How does “Reputation” work?

Reputation Cap, Rep Cap

You can earn up to 200 reputation from up-votes and suggested edits per day, but no more. Reputation earned from accepted answers and bounties is exempt from this cap.

Reputation Recalculation, Rep Recalc, Recalc

The rechecking of the correct amount of rep, automatically done daily at UTC:00:00 for all users. Most reputation change events automatically change the rep count, but some don't (e.g. Deleted post).

See: Reputation

Revision History

A detailed accounting of all changes made by all users to a question or answer. The revision history can be accessed by clicking on the "Edited [Date]" link.

They take the form of sitename.stackexhange.com/posts/post-id/revisions

Rollback

Occurs when a user edits a question, and selects one of the older edits from the revision history to paste back into the question, effectively undoing any edits made subsequent to the selected revision. The complete edit history is still preserved, and this becomes a new revision. The Edit Summary will say Rollback to Revision X.

Score

When referring to a post (question or answer) it means the total amount of upvotes, minus total number of downvotes. For example answer with 8 upvotes and 3 downvotes has score of 5. (The number displayed to the right of each post is the net score)

SEI

Server Fault, SF

The Stack Exchange website located at http://serverfault.com. Server Fault is for system administrators and IT professionals, people who manage or maintain computers in a professional capacity.

SF

See: Server Fault

Site Specific Meta

The individual meta site that every site in the network has. 5 reputation on the main site is required to participate, and your reputation is the same as the main site. There are no review queues, so no suggested edits etc (only Editors can edit, unless the post is Community Wiki It should be about site specific issues. Meta Stack Exchange is the only meta with rep.

See: Meta, Editor, Community Wiki, Reputation

SO

See: Stack Overflow

Sock Puppet [Account]

A duplicate account created by a user to perform activities they cannot perform with their main account. Examples include casting additional votes, voting on their own posts, or other activities prohibited or discouraged on the system. Some use them for testing new user restrictions.

Stack Overflow Internet Services Inc.

The former name of Stack Exchange Inc.

See: SEI

Stack Exchange, SE, SE 1.0, SE 2.0, SEI

The Q&A site network that Stack Overflow belongs to. The current version, Stack Exchange 2.0, consists of many (130+) community-driven sites operated by Stack Exchange (previously Stack Overflow Internet Services) that cover a variety of topics. A previous, now-defunct version, Stack Exchange 1.0, was a commercial, hosted platform built on the Stack Overflow engine which allowed individuals to operate independent Stack Overflow-like sites. See the Stack Exchange Tour for more information.

See: Stack Overflow Internet Services

Status Tags

Certain tags on Meta, denoted by their red color, can only be added to a question by a moderator. These tags are reserved for the purpose of giving a feature request or bug an official status from the development team. You may find that some of these tags have multiple meanings.

Trilogy

User Card

The name of the block after a post or comment that contains the username, gravatar, reputation, and badges. The Original Poster will have a differently coloured user card background.

Views

The number of unique visitors to a question or user profile.

Vote Fraud

Suspicious voting patterns often related to multiple accounts owned by a single user. Can also refer to casting down votes as revenge (serial downvoting). Vote Fraud.

See: Sock Puppet

Voting

Clicking the up arrow next to a question or answer registers an upvote, and awards 10 rep to the author. Clicking the down arrow registers a downvote. For non-wiki answers, downvoting subtracts 2 rep from the author and 1 rep from the downvoter. For questions there is no penalty for the downvoter.

VTC

See: Close

VTD

See: Delete

Wiki

See: Community Wiki

Winter Bash

Fun event, celebrating the end of the year. During those events, users can win "hats" of all kinds (including garments like glasses or even moustache and secret hats) that can be applied over the profile picture.

All: Please remember to delete your own comments when you find they are no longer relevant. Be aggressive in trying to keep this discussion area clean and clear for current, ongoing discussion.
–
Adam DavisFeb 24 '10 at 14:21

7

The close reasons have been changed: shouldn't this be reflected here?
–
user215114Sep 19 '13 at 6:12

1

Perhaps keep the close reason entries, but note that close reasons like TL (too localized) are no longer valid?
–
Jeff BridgmanDec 19 '13 at 22:15

@GuillermoGutiérrez The change that edit describes hasn't been made yet. It was announced as a change that will happen "soon".
–
ServyApr 16 '14 at 16:32

@Servy even after it's changed this Meta site will serve all Stack Exchange sites, so the edit will be incorrect anyway. (Meta Stack Overflow will start blank, so it might need its own new Glossary)
–
Shadow WizardApr 16 '14 at 16:44